The Most Homoerotic He-Man Art You’ll See Today – And For A Good Cause (NSFW)

Skeletor Saves is a He-Man-themed art show (NOT an April Fool’s Day joke I assure you) taking place next Thursday, April 7, at HeadQuarters Studio (385 Broadway, New York, NY 10013). As oxymoronic as the concept is, it’s hard to fault the show’s goal which is to raise money for the Ali Forney Center in New York City, a shelter for homeless LGBT youth.

Some major names from the fashion world are contributing pieces, including Marc Jacobs and Helmut Lang, but most of the artwork appears to be culled straight from the math notebooks of bored high schoolers. Let’s hope that after this show, we can we finally put a stick in the “let’s-ask-a-bunch-of-random-artists-to-create-cheesy-artwork-based-on-a-lame-childhood-memory-that-nobody-in-their-right-mind-would-hang-in-their-home” trend.

I’ve collected some of my favorite pieces after the jump… and by favorite, I mean most homoerotic. It’s kinda NSFW, but if you really think about it, so was the original Filmation series:

Since when did the Brew start showcasing pornography? Seriously guys, if you keep this up I’m going to be afraid to come around here.

amid

A.) Art and photography (even when they’re cheesy, as in this instance) are not pornography.

B.) Nobody put a gun to your head to click on a NSFW link that was clearly labeled as homoerotic art.

http://www.taberanimation.com Taber Dunipace

Actually in my browser, the image of He-Man hanging by his ball appeared BEFORE the jump, not after.

Daphne Yue

^ This.

chipper

I’ll have to agree with this, I think the coloured one where He Man is making out with the enemy would have been a better sample, because it gets the point across while still being worksafe.

Arse Gratia Artis

Maybe he’s not hanging by his balls. Could be he’s clenching a dildo.

Adam

Dammit, Amid. Some of us are at work.

McNulty

We should never be embarrassed by Art.
The quote NSFW was readable on the post’s title, take it on you and don’t blame the others. Easy.

Peter Wassink

Apparently, some of you at work are not working very hard.

Glowworm

By the power of Gayskull, I have the power!”

D

And your showing us this WHY!!!

amid

YOU’RE

Marc Baker

Uuuugh! I never thought I see this kind of art on Cartoon Brew. Sure, I’ve heard my fair share of amusingly gay jokes directed toward He-Man, (Especially from The Nostalgia Critic) but this is too much, and I grew up with He-Man as A kid. On the other side of that coin, I did get in trouble for making A drawing in school depicting A scene from A He-Man episode, but in retrospect, it wasn’t A good drawing, and that’s probably why.

http://www.youtube.com/timdrage Tim Draget

Are you sure you didn’t get in trouble at school because you inexplicably capitalised the word’a’ all the time?

http://google Kyle

Seriously Amid, what is this? I don’t really see what this has to do with any kind of thoughtful conversation someone can have about animation. You pick the most out there pictures from the show and I’m not really sure what were suppose to get out of this. Other than you might be into some serious fantasy stuff involving He-Man…

S

What the bloody hell. This goes a bit beyond a prank. Jerk.

http://pedepinico.blogspot.com Francisco Fernandes

It’s a good initiative to support ART of any kind. I particularly don’t think this should be a censored notice (although I think at least the “heavy” pictures should have some stripes and put links pointing to the originals, so the sensitive ones don’t complaim on it).

It’s a notice related with a old animation (I watched He-Man and never liked it but for my generation it’s part of a remarkable era) and it’s valid to post it here.

Congrats Amid!

amid

I also think it’s interesting how the He-Man character has transcended its original era (the Eighties) and purpose (selling toys) to resonate for entirely different reasons within the gay community. Maybe I’ve been under a rock, but I wasn’t aware of the character’s development into this type of an icon. It’s these nuances that make the culture of animation endlessly fascinating.

Chris Sobieniak

That’s how I view it (despite having grow out of the He-Man stuff when I was still a kid)!

Kitschensyngk

That first one looks painful.

Chirs Beaver

“It’s kinda NSFW” is about the biggest understatement I’ve read today; I’m glad I was home before I checked this :\ A lot of people (myself included) reach your articles following links from AnimationMeat & other websites and don’t -get- the content bumper you get coming from the CBrew main page.

If you’re gonna include something -this- explicit in your posts, kindly include [NSFW] in the title itself for the benefit of people coming in from the outside. S’all I ask.

amid

If you’re gonna include something -this- explicit in your posts, kindly include [NSFW] in the title itself for the benefit of people coming in from the outside. S’all I ask.

DONE! Now it says NSFW twice.

Mattieshoe

To be perfectly honest, I don’t see why you felt the need to put the most gut-wrenchingly obscene of all the drawings in this collection as the page header.

It physically hurts to look at, and I’ve seen some doozies in my day.

There’s no sense in putting a NSFW label if you get the worst of it before you’re even given a chance to read it.

I daresay you’re being pretty immature about this whole thing, Amid.

http://karitktana.blogspot.com/ maya s

a good cause, no doubt.
i just hope for the sake of the poor homeless youth that when they do find a home, it’ll be a nice and safe one that won’t have any of this artwork hanging on its walls..

Stephan

I love all of these, but the load was blown on the first image. He-Man hung by the balls a la Spider-Man? Double badass.

Roland Denby

This may be a legit art show for a legit cause, and if it is, I hope it works magic for the LGBT youth. But I cannot understand why it belongs here on Cartoon Brew. I am NOT a prude by any stretch of the imagination. But showing artwork of people slurping sperm? If that’s not pornography I don’t know what is.

Jorge Garrido

Then you don’t know what pornography is.

NC

Clearly you’ve been watching the harder stuff than most of us.

Joe

Wow, And you piss and moan about Family Guy?

http://somebodyelseslightbox.blogspot.com/ Dani Boy

The only reason this post was published was so that Amid could say ‘NOT an April Fools joke, I assure you’. Good stuff..

NC

It’s kinda… funny? I think that might be the word. Using homoerotic bondage “art” to help homeless LGBT kids. IDK it’s like making a rap video with big booties and shiny bling to promote education for minority youth.

I guess it’s the whole using a stereotypical image of homosexuals to help homosexuals is what’s got me kinda baffled.

Ken Cope

What? nobody thought to draw Skeletor with a boner? I am disappoint.

cbat628

So I come on Cartoon Brew unsuspectingly anticipating the usual commentary on animation and cartooning… and then I get a face blast of whatever the HECK that first image was (a low budget, NSFW, cirque du soleil ripoff?). I knew I would regret clicking on the link, but curiosity got the better of me. And now I have my share of nightmare fuel for the next couple of days.

Thanks Amid.

victoria

I think the LGBT youth are gonna stay homeless

Jeffers

I really want to hear John Kricfalusi’s opinion of this.

http://los-utopicos.blogspot.com allari

Quite amusing! I’m to busy laughing to be outraged.

timmyelliot

I get it, April fools!!!

artiebilkmore

My oldest son called me this evening from Portland Oregon…and after all these years of looking at your blog and never seeing anything like this before…I made the mistake of telling my son to check out Cartoon Brew!Big mistake!Now he’s going to think his old man is some kind of “pervert”!I have to disagree with Amid…that one with the semen is pornography…and I’m no prood either.I have an extensive collection of 70s underground comix that I collected as an adult.Now,for some reason,that I’ve steered my son to CB… I feel dirty and ashamed. Yes,I know……..it’s my problem.

Chris Sobieniak

It’s best they find out soon enough. My dad never gave me that experience at all.

http://www.animationfestival.ca J. Zaroski

Sorry, commentators, but the “art is only art if I don’t find it offensive” argument just doesn’t fly. Grow up.

Gray64

Whether or not it’s offensive is independant of whether or not it’s art, right? Committing a visual joke to a piece of paper and managing to tick someone off with it doesn’t make your work art, either.

http://www.enigmation.de slowtiger

Like it. I couldn’t stand the original He-Man stuff, but it’s nice to see that as a parody it totally makes sense now.

And I’d rather see 100 naked men in action than just one more bloody killing on screen or TV.

Chris Sobieniak

A candidate for sex over violence I see! I used to be in the violence camp but grew to being more in the middle.

Christopher Cook

I can never unsee those.

Steve Hogan

Amid, I’m at home and I’ve seen pretty much everything, so no harm no foul on this front, but I can see where a naked guy hanging upside from a dildo up his ass would be problematic for some people coming to a blog about cartoons. It might be a good idea to remove that image from the main post and let the hearty souls click for Filmation inspired erotica.

Peter Wassink

Steve you may have seen a lot but here you are seeing things that are not there….
there is no dildo in the image, its just He-Man hanging by his balls.

its really a pretty violent image rather then a pornographic one

Steven M.

Well, at least we know fully that He-man is SUPER-gay.

Paul M

I always thought He-Man should be strung up by his balls for being such a blatant rip off of Thundarr the Barbarian.

Don’t care too much to see all those shots of Skeletor’s whanger though.

From now on, Amid, when you don’t like some ‘toons I hold dear I’ll just assume they weren’t gay enough for you.

Cheers.

http://www.flickr.com/robertryancory Robertryan Cory

Ha I love you Amid! *tips cap*

leXXicon

Supenderificus! You never can have too much homoerotic He-Man art. One question, though….if this is for LGBT, where is the art that represents the LBT? For example, where is She-Ra and her lady friends, Castaspella, Peekablue, etc? Or her female nemesis, Catra? We’re missing some good opportunities here, folks.

Stumbled upon this related awesomeness (it would appeal to you gentlemen who are still battling your own feelings about gay art. We all know that if it were lesbian art, you wouldn’t have such a problem!):

While I think the cause is wonderful, I think the curator of the exhibit is just a big fan of Rule 34.

Rule 34: If it exists, there’s porn of it.

I dunno. The gallery is kind of cool in a “sh*ts and giggles” kinda way, but The Ali Forney Center’s association with the gallery only furthers the stereotype that homosexuals are over-sexualized and perverted. . .which is obviously not the case. The organization will definitely get money from people like myself who want to help the LGBT community, but it’ll frighten right-wing nutjobs and fanatical Christians. Remember, those people have money too!

I can empathize with the commentators who wrote of their outrage and disappointment that cartoon memories of their youth were depicted in this article as in-your-face porn. No pun intended.

I felt the same way eons ago when I encountered a drawing of Goofy and Minnie doing the “Nasty”. Minnie was Mickey’s girl friend and here she was cheating on him with Mickey’s friend Goofy. Shades of “The Jerry Springer Show”.

I worked at Filmation from 1983 until the studio closed its’ doors for the last time in 1988. I can’t recall ever having any sexual fantasies about the characters from the H-Man series or any of the other Filmation shows I worked on.

I did have sexual fantasies about several of my fellow artists. But that’s another story entirely.

http://arschblog.blogspot.com Steffi Alien

It is rather Porn disguised as “Art”!-.-”

If I want to see porn I go to websites or places that has Porn, but I hate to see that type of stuff everywhere now and even worse when they say it is “Art”!

Jon

This kind of art is not to my taste, but it’s still more interesting than those lousy Snuffy Smith cartoons Jerry linked to a few weeks ago.

Lilo

Uh…I dunno if I was supposed to be offended by this but actually I just don’t get it. And isn’t this copyright infringement?

Gray64

Actually no, as it would fall under fair use, as parody. No one’s going to confuse these images with officially liscensned material, which is necessary to prove copyright infingement.

It’s not about whether anyone has seen “worse things” or has been inadvertently exposed to them, but rather does one expect to be exposed to such on Caroonbrew – a site devoted to animation and cartoons – arguably a format that has been relegated to children’s entertainment in the U.S.

The posting of such obviously pornographic images (Amid is being disingenuous when he decries them as “art” in an attempt to legitimize them – even cartoons can be “pornographic” -especially when it’s a representation of a men depicted as licking the ejaculate from the erect penis of another man/Skeletor).

If that’s your cup of tea, have at it, however I think Amid and Cartoon Brew are doing both themselves and their readers a disservice here by posting such reasonably objectionable material at all.

miss t

I’ve seen worse things spelling an innocent Google search correctly.

doug

Cartoon Brew posts show up on the JacketFlap blog feed. There in the middle of art work by children’s book illustrators is this obscene nonsense. Eight images with out any warning. Please remove your blog from The JacketFlap blog list. This is not art. It is horrid and perverse.

http://aichtea.com hairy

i don’t know if anyone actually visited the site, but there’s a wide variety of stuff, and plenty of it is totally pg, and some i think are kind of cool, like this one:

Amid simply selected the particularly homo erotic ones, which by the way is TOTALLY COOL. check out leslie lohman gallery for more of that hot action.

The Gee

You want to know what’s funny?

Reading most of these comments comes across as if the “Internet Is Broken!”

I have only seen the splash image and I just clicked the comments link instead of the Read More link. So, while the other images are at the top of the page, I haven’t seen them.
———–
Two suggestions:
The first image could have been cropped (you likely do it with some others so this one might warrant it more);

As for the RSS feed, Doug mentions: is that really CB’s fault or is it the blog feed’s settings or your preferences? It is quite likely you could adjust the feed so you don’t get umpteen hundred potentially shocking images.

———–

The cause for this is worthwhile. Yeah. It might not please everyone that this type of art is being used but it might raise money for the cause.
Amid could have presented it differently, used fewer images and encouraged people to click through to see more. But, it isn’t like this is not animation related.

You know stuff similar to this that is animation-related has been drawn for decades. If you haven’t seen it, fine. If you purposely look for it, whatever. If you are offended by it, them’s the breaks. All things aren’t tasteful and saccharine in the world of art.

Chris Sobieniak

If there was at least one image to use for the entire post, I would’ve gone with the strip poker drawing. Works effectively if I do say so myself!

Heather

The photo with the metal banana hammock…am I the only one who noticed that He-Man had his appendix removed? And more importantly, WHY do I notice these things?! O__o

Gray64

I must say that I don’t have any problem with this post, but it all fairness, the image before the jump really ought to have been cropped. People scrolling through the post listings didn’t have any choice but to look at it. As to whether or not the images are pornography or art, I think that’s an argument that’ll go absolutely nowhere; you can take a penthouse centerfold and put a frame around and call it art if you want to, and a lot of people would agree with you because, frankly, art seems to be whatever anyone wants to say it is (no need to censor anything, though; if you don;t like it, just ignore it). The images are certainly sexualized, which seems to be the point of the exhibit. We live in a very sexualized society, and thus we tend to sexualize any and all images we see. He-Man WAS a kid’s toy, after all, and the cartoon was aimed at kids; that adults have sexualized it says more about them than the cartoon. Feminist critics often say that the idealized female form is all about sex while the idealized male form is about power, but from these images I think you can see that depends on who’s looking at it.
This is just lame and cheesy, really. “Look, He-Man’s GAY! Aren’t we naughty?” HIGH-larious. Still, it’s for a good cause.

Jesse

I think its quite interesting that this post has created such an uproar. Firstly because this is a totally relevant thing to put on an animation blog. Secondly have you never seen any sketches from a life drawing class….. art or porn?!
I also have seen far more offensive shorts posted on this site, that contain horrible (tongue in cheek) sexist situations. Were was the outrage then?
Also… i really wonder, say this had been homoerotic drawings of Josie and the pussycats. would there be a bunch of guys complaining about how their heterosexual sensitivities were damaged and they now totally have lost respect for amid.
Grow up. Get out of suburbia and admit that your tolerance is not good enough for the diverse world you live in.
Guess what! There are gay people out there. And gasp they have sex with each other. THERE MAY EVEN BE SOME NEXT DOOR!

last but not least. have you ever watched he-man? that is one of the most homoerotic cartoons i have ever seen!

NC

When nudity is no longer used to make an intelligent statement are used for the artist’s understanding for life and instead used for nudity sake than it is porn. I hate when people try to compare crap kitsch “art” like this to life drawings. YOU KNOW THERE’S A DIFFERENCE! Stop hiding behind life drawings as an excuse to draw Skeletor masturbating on Jaguars.

Second, it’s bad artwork. It all looks like it was drawn in some highschooler’s notebook. Why are you wasting time defending it?

Third just because we don’t think it’s good doesn’t make anyone here homophobic. There have been plenty of other postings on this blog promoting homosexuality and they have caused debate. But Hey Guess What? THAT’S WHAT ART IS SUPPOSE TO DO!!! It’s suppose to create real debate about the world around us. Art like this causes no real relevant debate other than “is bondage art art even when it’s not saying anything significant?”

Lastly before you start blabbering about tolerance maybe you should look in the mirror next time you want to call somebody something for having a different opinion than you. You’re just as intolerant as any gun toting homophobe out there you just don’t want to admit it.

Jesse

I think there were some comments pointing towards peoples discomfort with the explicit homoerotic content of the material.
This to me reads as intolerance. I never said anything about homophobia, because homophobia is a very different thing. Homophobia- the fear of homos.
I am talking more about intolerance to sex and explicitly the discomfort experienced when exposure to homosexual acts occurs.
I would also disagree with your comment that this art does not challenge anyone, because obviously is has sparked a debate between the two of us, on weather or not we should feel uncomfortable when faced with explicit sexual images.
Again I want to raise the question if these were homoerotic images depicting women, would there be such an negative reaction.

And lastly I want to respond to your acquisition that I am intolerant, and comparing me to “any gun toting homophobe out there”. I find this incredibly offensive, maybe similarly to the response you felt when i accused people of being intolerant (or as you read it homophobic).

Yes I am intolerant to ignorance. Im intolerant to peoples sex negative reactions to these pieces, Im intolerant to people who believe that sex does not have a place in our society, or even that the idea of sex should exist out of the bed room. This is getting into a whole other realm, but i would even go as far as saying… people who react so negatively to images like this, are the reason that there are fundraisers for homeless queer youth. Because it was the lack of acceptance and the fear that these sexual acts were going on under the parents roofs, that these queer kids are homeless in the first place.

I don’t want people to “tolerate” me because I’m queer. I want people to accept me for who I am, and that should have nothing to do with who I sleep with.

I don’t want to be “intolerant” to peoples opinions about art, or sexuality, or in general really. but until many people who have had the privilege of going through their life without feeling marginalized or like their a minority. Then I dont know if i can respect or “tolerate” their opinion. Yes this makes me live and exist in a bubble, but at least I feel safe there. And that for me is really the only privilege I have, in a world where Im surrounded by hetero-normative standards and sex negative white dudes.

NC

Firstly, your original post comes off as condescending to anyone who has a different opinion than you and this particular quote,

“Guess what! There are gay people out there. And gasp they have sex with each other. THERE MAY EVEN BE SOME NEXT DOOR!”

Seems to be trying to arouse shock from those who don’t carry the same opinion as you. Thus it is easy to conclude that you are accusing people of different opinions then yours of being homophobic.

Second if you read my whole quote I said, “Art like this causes no real relevant debate other than “is bondage art art even when it’s not saying anything significant?”” Yes it causes debate, but is it a debate worth having to begin with? Is a masturbating Skeletor and especially at this skill level 1. actually worth putting in a gallery 2. Does it make any real statement or is it there for it’s own sake. If it’s not creating a real argument and only distracting us with feaux arguments, such as “is this worth defending?” only hurts art and does nothing to accomplish the goals that art is meant to: To help influence people’s ideas of the world around them. How is it doing that?

And lastly, yes your attitude in your original posting is extremely intolerant. No one accepts anyone fully. If I were of one religion and you maybe of another does the fact that I am of a different faith than yours make it wrong because I have not “ACCEPTED” it? What right do you have to DEMAND acceptance if you can’t tolerate tolerance?

I deal with ignorance all the time and in all honesty I have been every bit tolerant of your opinion I don’t agree with it but I don’t believe it is an argument based on ignorance, I feel that it is misguided and only promotes isolationism and not the unity that you are seeking for your community.

But I still stand by my statement if you can’t tolerate the fact that the MOST anyone of a different lifestyle can give to the gay community is tolerance than you are just as intolerant as the people you are fighting. Until you accept this fact, this battle will continue with no victor.

“Yes this makes me live and exist in a bubble, but at least I feel safe there. And that for me is really the only privilege I have, in a world where Im surrounded by hetero-normative standards and sex negative white dudes.”

If you want to help the gay community then you have to break out of that bubble and be willing to talk to others who would otherwise remain deaf. That is all of our duties, there is something that we all feel we should fight for but staying in our bubbles doesn’t help. And I don’t believe this work helps in that goal but only continues to harden that bubble. That is what art is about and that’s why I have such a strong opinion on this post.

chipper

Considering the stuff I’ve encountered on Deviantart, this barely counts as news. :P At least it’s for a good cause.

Anon E. Mouse

Wheres the eye bleach,…I CANT UNSEE THIS!!!

http://www.doctorwhom.com gavin mouldey

Jeepers, even if it WAS porn, who decided animation-related erotica can’t be discussed on an animation-related site? With all the pissing and moaning I hear in the animation community about cartoons not just being for kids, you’d think this post would be a liberation. secondly, why do the self proclaimed “not-prudes” assume that because someone posts, defends, or creates this stuff that it must also “float their boat”. If I drew a giant, pink, tartan-wearing blob destroying a city, that doesn’t make me a terrorist, or Scottish.

What real harm or psychological damage can come from seeing a sketch of an action figure hanging by his balls?

http://woweh.com Kelly

Pearls have been clutched; smelling salts gathered, etc etc.

andreas Wessel-Therhorn

i remember some guys getting all huffy about an alleged gay untertone in day and night and promised to boycott Pixar for it, so this outrage doesnt surprise me.dont think the point was whether this is good art or bad, but just that he’man, who always had gay connotations, was taken to the next level with it and just put it out there, so to speak.
anyway, reminds me of the uproar over Janet’s nipple. a lot of brouhaha over not much.

http://www.enigmation.de slowtiger

I’m a tad bit disappointed that so far nobody complained those images would give innocent kids “ideas”, since we so often had the point in discussions that cartoons don’t give kids “ideas”.

And I will continue to use my own definition of porn: Porn isn’t naked people. Porn isn’t people having sex. Porn only is when somebody charges me for watching naked people. It’s the business model, not the pictures.

Chris Sobieniak

So I guess most Japanese comics would qualify for “porn” by your definition. Good one!

Tory

What does NSFW mean? I never heard of it, it is no warning. I don’t consider this art, maybe pornographic art but eh, I know things are all matters of interpretation but if it was a picture of Mickey, or Bob Clampett or Strawberry Shortcake or a Bart Simpson or Walt Disney or Mohamed or your mama or Obama (the last three having been animated in film to fit the topic of being animation related), would you post such images on this site? I will say that, had I been viewing this site at my local library which I am apt to do when my Internet is down, I would have been kicked out and never allowed to use them again and their computer lab is right by the kids section in eye shot.

Chris Sobieniak

Just to clarify, “NSFW” stands for “Not Safe For Work”.

The Gee

I’m sorry.
I can’t let this go away.

For those who are angry that post is here. Like Amid pointed out, you can choose to view either his or Jerry’s posts. There’s specific links to do so. If you know what you are doing then you can change the default bookmark to jump straight (no pun intended) to that.

If you are offended by seeing this here, why egg it on? It is only one blog post out of dozens a week. The chances are better that there will be more posts from Amid negatively commenting on a cartoon than there is of him going on a gay toy jag.

Speaking of toys…
the first generation that watched that TV show are in their early 30s, right?

They are old enough to laugh at the show in ways that might be juvenile or profane. They are probably old enough to know how ridiculous the show was vs. when they were young. Back then they may have joked about it without knowing much about the world or themselves.

Now, a thing about the artists who started this minor Freak Out (none of whom I probably know or know of):

It might seem like an immature way for a visual artist to express themselves but don’t get down on the artists who decided to participate. After all, they are just having fun as they try to help out. The cause seems to worthwhile. For some kids the world is really tough and it doesn’t hurt to make it better for them.

Even if the artists who contributed artwork might be sick and twisted bastards, they are trying to help make the world better. (haha. just kidding. They probably aren’t trying too hard.)

Someone, maybe the Brew site, should do something similar yet request cartoon art which non-hippie grandmas could love. (Surely, non-hippie grandmas can be cool, too, right?)

Pick a cause– and not just any cause; pick a good cause– to help out someone who needs it. A cause where there is a direct impact for those who need the help instead of one with high administrative costs that sucks up the money raised.

Just don’t ban cartoon art featuring rainbows and unicorns, okay? Surely, some people who buy art like that kind of stuff, right?

Brendan Spillane

I HAVE A BIIIG SWORRRRRRRRRRD!!!

Ace Weems

I always thought this site was to celebrate cartoons & animation not denigrate them.
I know these things are out there, they’re even funny but leave it to the others to post these.
You’re site is supposed to be better than this.
This kind of posting is juvenile and you added nothing to the dialogue.
Take the hit Amid and learn from it.

tom

who knew the brew was such a conservative wasp nest? seriously grow up, does anyone remember how gay the original show was? i mean, come onnn.

amid

Tom – I think we just have a minority of conservative commenters being very vocal. The animation community I know tends to be overwhelmingly open-minded about social and political issues.

What’s funny is that this He-Man art is tamer than a lot of gag drawings I’ve seen drawn by artists working in the industry. For example, try to guess which Disney animator drew this way back in 1940:

Mattieshoe

To Be honest, that’s fine. it’s clearly cartoon art, it has a place here.

Nothing in this post is worth looking at, it’s Junk.

The main kicker is having to look at He-Man hanging from his balls every time I browse this site, that’s just wrong no matter how you look at it.

Please reformat the article so we don’t have to see/feel that every time we come here.

Mattieshoe

Also, that looks like Frank Thomas’s stuff.

NC

You keep dodging our points Amid and rather than addressing the point you keep shunning everyone who disagrees with as being homophobic. There is a difference between art that promotes the positive aspects of the homosexual community and depraved crap that only serves to widen the gap between mainstream America and Gay America. This only serves to widen the gap.

It’s great that they are using the proceeds to help homeless gay youths but to use that as an excuse to make art that only perpetuates stereotypes that only hurt the gay community defeats the very purpose they’re serving.

Like I said before it’s like using underprivileged minority youths as an excuse to make a stereotypical rap video.

Chris Sobieniak

Thanks Amid, keep it up!

tom

i’ll be disgusted if you go with any of the majority of whiners on here and clip that picture, or cut it off altogether amid. and nc, what “points” can you possibly have with that last comment? what is “positive gay art” tissue paintings of kittens as done by impoverished drag queens for charity? puh-leese. grab an art history book for christs sake. where on earth does this come into play with art, and since when did gay subculture or culture become a morality play? these “points” amid are supposedly avoiding are just turning into another round of questions with zero context. i think the lgbt community has gotten along just fine with such subversive and (le gasp!) highly erotic artists as tom of finland, film makers such as kenneth anger and john waters, all of who are a part of mainstream culture in some form or another after a matter of time, and trail-blazing gay culture in this country and the world. how is any of this “depraved crap”? where is your rating system, or rather, what pills are you on and where can i avoid them? if anyone is poisoning the well or causing a “rift”, its mouse-keteer moral-hunters like you who manage to make a charity event for homeless gay youth a mountain out of a molehill. and have no backing points to what “good” art and “bad” art is. its a cartoon site, i’m sure a few eyebrows in most circles are raised already in the “positive” art department. judgements of “good taste” like yours are the kind that eventually turn into cutting endowments for the arts during the reagan administration and would kick “fire in my belly” out of american museums, all for the sake of “good taste” and “acceptance.”

NC

Let me ask you this: Do you think these images help to educate mainstream America’s idea of homosexuality? Do you think that maybe, just maybe it’s these images that people think of when they think of gays? Do you think that maybe this is what people who are homophobic are yelling against? How about instead of using shock and awe tactics how about saying, look we understand that there are aspects to culture that is different and we don’t expect you to accept all of it but just give us a chance to show you that we are not a threat to your lifestyle, THAT is positive, THAT will get people to vote for gay marriage and support the gay community. This is just people with a blow horn saying look at gay He-man.

Second if my points are so invalid why haven’t you actually addressed them clearly. All you’ve done is make ambiguous, generalized remarks that is not debating.

Thirdly, if you asked anyone who doesn’t live in Los Angeles or New York, which believe it or not there is an entire nation between those two cities. They would have NO idea who John Waters, Kenneth Anger or Tom of Finland are. If you are interested in helping America understand gay culture so that they can embrace it then start with something they understand and relate to. Modern Family is great example of POSITIVELY opening the discussion, this only serves to isolate. If this is all you can come up with as a way to help the gay community then it’ll continue to be an nearly unreachable goal for them.

I mean if the whole idea is to raise money to help a group of people don’t you want as many people as possible helping out? Trust me these images will only attract one particular audience and will not help to spread the cause to others.

I’m looking at this as if I was trying to raise money to help people what would attract people more? This wouldn’t.

So here’s my challenge to you. If my logic is SO unreasonable then take each point and deconstruct and show where my logic falters. Stop accusing me of Nazi-ism for having an opinion and actually debate. Don’t make general statements and refrain from name calling. Grow up, put on your big boy pants, debate or don’t talk with grown ups.

Roland Denby

VERY well said, NC. Thanks for putting coherent words to what I myself was thinking.

I think so many people, especially “Tom” with his angry diatribes, are missing one valid point. If the moderators here felt this was a story that was worthy of reporting, then they should have handled it better. Personally, I think it was idiotic to add this story but hey, it’s not my website. I would have had more common sense than to post a photo where YOUNG KIDS could have viewed them. Who would have thought that I now have to add Cartoon Brew to the list of websites that are security blocked from my young kids? After all, it’s a website that celebrates cartoons! Hell, even Perez Hilton hides images that are not safe for young eyes behind a security wall. Of course, he does that now because of the indecency lawsuits he has had to defend himself against for doing exactly what Amid did. Maybe Cartoon Brew need to defend themselves from one of those expensive lawsuits before they realize the bigger issue isn’t whether the story was run at all, but whether it was handled with enough responsibility and decorum that young viewers were protects from watching men slurp ejaculate? ?I don’t claim to know what laws are in place, but there must be some that protect young viewers, especially on a cartoon based website? It was a major lack in judgement to have some of these images in plain sight.

I’m not arguing whether or not it’s “pornography” or “art.” That’s subjective at best. But let me ask this: What if the “art” in question was done with photography? What if those drawings of He-Man and Skeletor slurping each others’ ejaculate was a photograph? Would it be less “art” and more “pornography?” Would it have warranted a better warning than a “NSFW”? Would there be so many defenders? I dunno.

I’m a gay man. The images bothered me for the reasons NC stated above. It’s a sub-culture that unfortunately is what the bigots are fighting against, and it’s a shame that this is how the fund raisers are trying to raise money. They are talking to a very small choir. But I suppose that’s an argument best swerved on their own site, if they have one.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik

I FAPPED, ROFL.

Alissa

Guys, I think Amid wanted you to freak out. This stuff is so over the top it’s more funny than sexy.

That said, did anyone notice in the second image after the jump; Skeletor(?)’s ass gleams two perfect quotation marks. I officially can’t stop giggling now.

http://arschblog.blogspot.com Steffi Alien

To me this fails in both; being funny AND sexy!
It has no smartness and taste. They just took some famous cartoon characters and turned it into shitty porn. Anyone can do that.
Looks like it was rather done for the shock and attention.

MichaelDair

Well, I’ll just towel off now and go to bed.

http://puppetvision.info Andrew

Amid, that was just unnecessary. I’ll be sending Cartoon Brew the bill for my new eyes.

Shawn’s Bro

Looks like an exercise in self hatred. :)

tom

“Do you think these images help to educate mainstream America’s idea of homosexuality? Do you think that maybe, just maybe it’s these images that people think of when they think of gays?”

i don’t really understand how artwork is supposed to make anyone feel safe about their ingrained values about sexuality or anyone different from you for that matter. i’m also really having a difficult time understanding how an obscure blog about animation that decries almost anything mainstream is going to bother the majority. i just don’t think the folks down in salt lake really care about cartoonbrew.com. why? because this isn’t aol news where grandma and grandpa are checking their outdated email, this isn’t abc where we can barely show a gay person without them being a sassy spunky friend or show a couple kissing without the camera practically vomiting in think tank nervousness, this is a blog that pines over nostalgic half forgotten animation and moans over alvin and the chipmunks box office receipts. does he man fan art or, oh excuse me, porn belong hanging from his balls on an elementary school bulletin board? nope. would this be great in a textbook that mentions gay rights? nope i doubt it. but look at where we are, this is a website for people with an interest in a controversial often degraded media, animation, in a competitive, out of the mainstream career, animation. i think the shoe fits here. once again, you have no sense of context, especially if “modern family” is on your radar of good examples and the most of your worries.

“look we understand that there are aspects to culture that is different and we don’t expect you to accept all of it but just give us a chance to show you that we are not a threat to your lifestyle”

i don’t care whether i’m a threat to your lifestyle or not, creating and witnessing artwork is not about making sure what the joneses will think. i’m starting to believe if you were in charge of the world and doing things to “give us a chance to show we aren’t a threat” the world would be in a white sterile tank with no windows. i certainly won’t walk around eggshells when it comes to art and a place for free expression, especially in a country where a president can defend “the sanctity of marriage” and mormons can spend untold millions to stifle my rights. i think skeletors balls being licked in pencil is the least of both of our problems.

“Thirdly, if you asked anyone who doesn’t live in Los Angeles or New York, which believe it or not there is an entire nation between those two cities. They would have NO idea who John Waters, Kenneth Anger or Tom of Finland are. If you are interested in helping America understand gay culture so that they can embrace it then start with something they understand and relate to.”

oh once again, pick up a damn book sweetie pie. i don’t live in la or ny and have no interest in such. i grew up in a pitifully evil, judgemental small town that you don’t want to think about. how ignorant to deny so many untold amounts of lonely, different kids and adults in this world who go after any scrap of culture they can get like pieces of gold. to think the films of anger and waters are just cosmopolitan cafe talk is another thing i won’t stand for. whether this consumerist culture wants to admit it or not anger and waters contributions made their everyday entertainments possible. the adding of pop music into film soundtracks would never happen without anger, the low brow comedy of most cartoons and hit shows would be nothing without waters good taste for the bad. oh i think plenty have been interested, or have contributed whether they like it or not, in helping america understand. almost every important director of huge blockbusters this country sees in droves have admitted angers influence, every type of blue haired grand parent and family saw “hairspray” on broadway in droves. i’m sure you think films like “philadelphia” and “brokeback mountain” helped all kinds of realitives stop everything and call their long lost gay kids. of course, because it required one or both of them to die in the end, oh and no goodbye kisses, thats just far too much, what would wyoming think? god forbid. and to say any of these people don’t know, acknowledge or at least witness trailblazers of their stature in some way means you have no place judging or understanding the importance of gay culture.

“I mean if the whole idea is to raise money to help a group of people don’t you want as many people as possible helping out? Trust me these images will only attract one particular audience and will not help to spread the cause to others.I’m looking at this as if I was trying to raise money to help people what would attract people more? This wouldn’t.”

“gee whiz judy! les put on a show and ev’rybody will be just thrilled! we’ll make it to broadway fer shore! hyuck hyuck!” what sappy musical did you step out of? you really think most people with loads of cash give a shit about a bunch of homeless gay teens living in dire, often terrifying poverty? this is obviously a fun, small piece of charity work for a lot of artists to show their stuff and make some fun, funny pieces of erotica, along with putting some really terrific artists names out there. furthermore, who hired you as PR? what other benefits or charities do you know they’re going to do? obviously they’ve made some leverage helping the gay community and what buisness do you have judging them? this is chicken feed compared to the large, daunting fund raisers i’ve seen gay clinics desperately try to put together for so many years on the verge of closing, denying hundreds, thousands affordable health care while sucking up to any politician or benefactor who’ll barely listen. a few paintings for a small benefit? the man scared off by some pretty harmless nudity can shove his money up his ass, and i’m not suprised if the ones in charge would think the same, and good for them. they’ve worked hard.

“Stop accusing me of Nazi-ism for having an opinion and actually debate. Don’t make general statements and refrain from name calling. Grow up, put on your big boy pants, debate or don’t talk with grown ups.”

oh no dear, you’re not a nazi. you’re worse than a nazi, your one who wears a smiling liberal face wanting “whats best for the common good.” you’re the kind that’ll end up rating movies for the mpaa. your opinions, as far as i see them, have no happy medium or grounding in anything but a “common good” that always becomes sinister in nearly any context. an ignorance of history, an ignorance of a culture or sub culture that will thrive and survive without your judgemental opinions. where on earth do judgements like yours end? at a kyrstalnacht or a book burning somewhere i suppose. don’t forget your mickey mouse mask.
(stumbles back to the kiddy table, pulling my big boy britches up)

Should we not, though, encourage conservative commentators to share their views, or do the more liberal minded among us feel inhibited by passionately expressed viewpoints that differ from their own? I don’t much see the value in comments like “you’re an idiot, grow up.” Mocking those who disagree with you, especially when they are NOT themselves being abusive, or attempting to silience YOUR opinion, isn’t very productive. Loads of people feel the way the more conservative commentators do about the images presented here; mocking, deriding, and insulting them only serves to drive such opinions underground, in which case, you’ve changes no one’s mind, only insured that the issue will never be discussed honestly. Some people are going to find the above works offensive, for a variety or reasons; if your best response to such people is “shut up,” well then bravo, you have all the rhetorical panache of a third grader.

http://andrewatteberry.blogspot.com Andrew Lee

Meh…I’m all for good causes, and this seems to be a valid cause. Call me a prude, but I don’t care for the subject matter, but then again I don’t really care for apple juice, ankle socks, or Will Ferrell movies either….that doesn’t make me intolerant, and it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with this kind of art. Just means that it’s not my cup of tea.

More power to them though, I hope they make a ton of money.

Lee C

That first image of He-Man would have made the finest logo Filmation ever had.

http://damnable.tumblr.com/ Chadwick

The art in question is mediocre at best, but the comment thread is golden! Thanks Cartoonbrew!

Arse Gratia Artis

You know, when you consider the fact that most of us have repeatedly buried their faces in someone else’s genitals throughout our lives, and have likely enjoyed the reciprocation, seeing this on a website really shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

RadFemHedonist

I don’t object to these images being on this website, but I think they should have only been visible when you click on the page for the post itself, and NSFW should have been in the post title from the start if it wasn’t, A) because while I’m not arguing for society to bend over backwards, people should generally be given a choice as to whether to view pornographic material or not B) because some people are accessing this from work or a library computer or some other public place and might get banned/fired. And for everyone saying that people “aren’t working hard”, there’s these two things called a lunch break and a coffee break. If you want to argue against using company resources to access non work related sites, that still doesn’t change that some people are probably accessing these sites during their break.

Zori

I LOVE IT ITS Creative!!!! it put a smile on my face we only see the modest side of these characters why not see them with their dicks out I LOVE IT keep it up!!!! It makes me want to join the Dark side for all the wrong reasons just kidding!!! but i would like to see more